The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, and East Asian Studies Center have awarded more than $1.63 million in student support this year in the form of 65 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship grants to Ohio State students spanning 14 graduate programs and nine undergraduate majors. For Summer 2021, more than $97,000 in awards supported 11 graduate and professional students and four undergraduate students in their pursuit of intensive language study. For Academic Year 2021-2022, more than $1,533,000 in awards will support 34 graduate and professional students and 16 undergraduate students pursuing language and area studies across many disciplines. Funding for FLAS Fellowships comes from the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act and is subsidized by generous matching funding from The Ohio State University Graduate School.

This year’s FLAS fellowships support the development of area studies knowledge and language fluency in 11 languages, with 60 percent of fellows pursuing language study at the advanced level. The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies awarded funding to two graduate students and one undergraduate student in Summer 2021 and 13 graduate students and five undergraduate students in Academic Year 2021-2022 to support the study of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Uzbek. The Center for Latin American Studies awarded funding to three graduate and three undergraduate students in Summer 2021 and six graduate and professional students and 11 undergraduate students in Academic Year 2021-2022 to support the study of Portuguese and Quechua. The East Asian Studies Center awarded funding to six graduate students in Summer 2021 and 15 graduate and professional students in Academic Year 2021-2022 to support advanced studies of Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Summer FLAS Fellows complete the equivalent of a full year of language study in an intensive program (usually 6-10 weeks long). The fellowship covers up to $5,000 of the language program’s tuition, provides a $2,500 stipend, and in some instances, up to $1,000 towards international travel. This summer, while many programs were cancelled in the wake of COVID-19, the three OSU FLAS-granting centers, with support from the U.S. Department of Education, were able to support fellows in identifying alternate programs to continue their language study.

Academic year FLAS Fellowships are awarded to undergraduate, graduate, or professional students who are enrolled in a course of study at Ohio State that requires both language and area studies expertise. Students are required to take one language and one area studies course in both autumn and spring semesters, completing one academic year language sequence. The fellowship provides a stipend of $15,000 and tuition support up to $18,000 for graduate and professional students. For undergraduate students, it provides a stipend of $5,000 and tuition and fees up to $10,000.

FLAS Fellowships often provide graduate students with funding so that they can focus on language acquisition during the course of the fellowship while not needing to hold a graduate associate position to fund their studies that year.

View the complete list of Summer 2021 and Academic Year 2021-2022 FLAS Fellowship Grant recipients below:

Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

Summer 2021:

Graduate Students

• Nicholas Seay, History (Advanced Uzbek)
• Kelila Thomsen, Slavic and East European Studies (Advanced Russian)

Undergraduate Students

• Claire Olechiw, International Studies/Russian (Advanced Russian)

Academic Year 2021-2022:

Graduate Students

• Thorayah Abelqader, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (Intermediate Turkish)
• Sofia Bachman, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures (Advanced Polish)
• Maryam Bainazar, Slavic and East European Studies (Intermediate Uzbek)
• Emma Brzezinski, Anthropology (Intermediate Polish)
• Joe Ernst, Slavic and East European Studies/Public Affairs (Intermediate Polish)
• Rachel Hutchison, Slavic and East European Studies (Intermediate Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian)
• Philip Kopatz, Slavic and East European Studies (Advanced Russian)
• Clayton Marr, Linguistics (Intermediate Romanian)
• Nancy Pellegrino, Slavic and East European Studies (Advanced Russian)
• Matt Pinerola, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (Intermediate Polish)
• Yakov Shatalov, Slavic and East European Studies (Advanced Russian)
• Kelila Thomsen, Slavic and East European Studies (Intermediate Polish)
• William Zadeskey, Slavic and East European Studies (Intermediate Romanian)

Undergraduate Students

• Yana Artemov, Art/Russian (Advanced Russian)
• Gabbie Fisher, International Studies/Russian (Advanced Russian)
• Sarah Hohman, Russian (Advanced Russian)
• Stephanie Manville, Russian (Advanced Russian)
• Daria Novikov, Political Science/Russian (Advanced Russian)

Center for Latin American Studies

Summer 2021:

Graduate Students

• Gabriel Zeballos-Castellón, Geography (Advanced Quechua)
• Deborah Waughtal, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Quechua)
• Sadler Kirk, Spanish and Portuguese (Advanced Quechua)

Undergraduate Students

• Clara Hach, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Micah Unzueta, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Quechua)
• Sarah Wade, Spanish and Portuguese (Advanced Quechua)

Academic Year 2021-2022:

Graduate Students

• Alexa Civittolo, Law (Elementary Portuguese)
• Tara Hazel, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Ellie Kaiser, Spanish and Portuguese (Elementary Portuguese)
• Deborah Waughtal, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Quechua)
• Frederick Woodrum, Speech and Hearing Sciences (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Gabriel Zeballos-Castellón, Geography (Advanced Quechua)

Undergraduate Students

• Paden Aubry, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Katriese Deleon, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Olivia Drambarean, History (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Andrew Gantt, Spanish and Portuguese (Advanced Portuguese)
• Clara Hach, Public Policy (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Sophia Lenhart, Spanish and Portuguese (Advanced Portuguese)
• Orianna McDavid, English (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Dylan Newport, Geography (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Cullen Roth, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)
• Micah Unzueta, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Quechua)
• Casey Wood, Spanish and Portuguese (Intermediate Portuguese)

East Asian Studies Center

Summer 2021:

Graduate Students

• Asia Adomanis, History of Art (Advanced Chinese)
• Makayla Cherry, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Korean)
• Michael Frazer, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Japanese)
• Trey Goodin, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Intermediate Japanese)
• Harrison Levy, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Patrick Nash, History (Advanced Chinese)

Academic Year 2021-2022:

Graduate Students

• Makayla Cherry, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Korean)
• Paul Cockrum, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Christopher Craigo, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Japanese)
• James Danison, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Michael Frazer, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Japanese)
• Kalia Fusco, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Trey Goodin, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Japanese)
• Christopher Hart, History (Advanced Chinese)
• Harrison Levy, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Madison McCain, Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies (Advanced Japanese)
• Morgan, McCrary, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Henry Misa, History (Advanced Chinese)
• Nicole Nicholson, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Japanese)
• Olivia Smalley, East Asian Languages and Literatures (Advanced Chinese)
• Patrick Nash, History (Advanced Chinese)